Spaceballs (ENGLISH)

Spaceballs (John Morris). The hilarious version of Mel Brooks parodying Star Wars with touches of other films such as Lawrence of Arabia, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Alien, eventually became a cult classic. The soundtrack was composed by John Morris, habitual collaborator of Mel Brooks, who does an excellent work composing themes without abusing the tone of comedy, already sufficiently present in the own images. At the level of Hollywood's major productions, Spaceballs music became easy to remember, especially for its main theme, the Spaceball 1, Dark Helmet, the love theme, the desert or the Schwartz. In addition to the song Spaceballs, performed by The Spinners, and co-written by Brooks himself.

Adventure, science fiction, romanticism and a longing touch for classic adventure. That expresses the main theme of Spaceballs, perfect for the comedy that is about to begin. In the purest style of Star Wars, the film begins with the "endless" plane of the Long Ship, moment at which the music introduces the spectator into the space adventure. Dark Helmet Entrance combines seriousness and comedy in equal parts, although with the appearance of Dark Helmet in image, the general atmosphere takes the comic side, while Planet Druidia is musically described as a perfect haven of peace. The scene of Princess Vespa's escape from her own wedding in her "brand-new" spaceship Mercedes 2001 SEL, Limited Edition, is one of the few pure comedy themes in the score, but, finally, the theme was not used and, in the final montage, the sequence ran out of music.

The original soundtrack published in 1987 included 9 tracks, 3 of them belonging to the Morris score. In 2006, La-La Land Records released the full score, including numerous extra tracks and a booklet with brief notes about film and music. While a full edition was long-awaited, perhaps this issue is excess content. A clear example are the 8 versions of the Love Theme present in the album. The edition contains several "peculiar" aspects, such as to be a commemorative edition for the 19th anniversary, almost a joke like the movie itself, when, in general, this type of extended editions are usually marketed to commemorate rounder dates, such as the 15th, 20th or 25th anniversary. Another aspect that La-La Land has polished over time are the long names of some tracks, and of which this edition has several examples. You can specify the timing of the movie with less text, not being necessary to be extremely literal when naming the tracks.

In 2008, the MGM Music label edited digitally almost all of Morris's score, but, unlike La-La Land, it did not include extras and some short-lived tracks. Although with a pretty elementary cover art, the final compilation turned out to be a short but correct edition of 33 minutes, in which is missing the theme sung by The Spinners.